220 films (end of 220 size?) & Provia 400X discontinuance & price rev. from Fuji
Well, the time has come.
This is for Japanese market, but some of the info may interest you.
See the link below:
http://www.nationalphoto.co.jp/1F/fuji_news_04.htm
http://ffis.fujifilm.co.jp/information/articlein_0040.html
I will briefly translate significant part (not all) in English:
--------Beginning of Brief Translation ---------
Date: July 10th, 2015
1) Discontinuance 1: Provia 400X, All size (i.e. 135 & 120), last estimated delivery to market is Dec 2015
2) Discontinuance 2: All 220 size films (i.e. PRO160NS, Provia 100F, Velvia 100 & Velvia 50 all in 220 size,
all of these films are still be available in 120 size).
I won’t write all of the last estimated delivery date for each 220 films but the last one is Velvia 100 (in 220 size) that is estimated March 2017.
3) Discontinuance of Velvia 100F sheet film (4x5, 8x10), last delivery estimated Mar 2017
4) Price revision (for most films, both commercial & Professional, including one time use camera, excluding INSTAX)
Average 20% increase in price (depending on the product), starting from Oct 2015 or later
The reason and explanation:
The world demand for film was at its peak in Year 2000, which was around 3 billion rolls, however from that the demand decreased about 20% per year.
Today the demand for film is less than 1% of that peak.
To tackle the situation, we have made an effort to streamline our production and cut cost as much as possible, but unfortunately need to revise price and discontinue some products.
------ END of Brief Translation ------
NOTE:
IIRC, Kodak has already discontinued 220 (if not please advice, well maybe some 220 Portra left in the market…) and also I don’t know any other manufacture that makes 220 now (if not please advice).
Fuji will discontinue all 220 size film and the last 220 film which will be expected to be delivered to market is in March 2017 (i.e Velvia 100).
Thus Year 2017 may be the “last year” for 220 film.
What I think:
Almost as estimated, in short.
The bad is Provia 400X is discontinued (I really like this film in 6x9 format but I understood that this film will be go anyway).
The good is that they still seem to preserve PRO160NS C41 film in 120/Sheet size.
Well, 6 months ago, I heard this film would be discontinued, but about 3 months ago I heard that discontinuance of this film is in “pending state”.
I normally prefer another manufacturer for Professional C41 film, but this C41 film from Fuji is OK.
So Fuji will still going to manufacture/sell the following Professional films (at least in the foreseeable future):
E6 ---> Provia 100F, Velvia 100, Velvia 50 ALL available in 135, 120 & Sheet size
C41 ---> PRO160NS (120 & Sheet), 400H (135 & 120)
B&W ---> ACROS (135, 120 & Sheet)
Also most other commercial films (135 size) including INSTAX will be available (note that Fuji recently expanded manufacturing facility for INSTAX film).
All of the above films, which will not be discontinued, will see price increase (expect INSTAX) approx 20% starting from Oct 2015 or later (no info about peel apart instant films).
This is
FAR BETTER than recent sudden price hike of Kodak films occurred in Japan.
Not a bad lineup in my opinion in these days.
I think that E6 films will still be available in Japan (at least for a while) because some Japanese still seems to use E6 film even they mostly do not project them (have heard that in Germany some still project slide film but I don’t have any idea).
In Japan there seem to have a belief (esp. among advanced amateur photographers, they seems to use E6 often and seldom use C41) that E6 film has advantage over C41 in image quality (which I don’t agree).
I mostly use E6 films but not for image quality merit.
Regards,
jun
